Dr. Daniel Coxe and Carolana

STOP

Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World

This article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in
the world by JSTOR.

Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other
writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. The works date from the
mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.

We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this
resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial
purposes.

Read more about Early Journal Content at http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/individuals/early-
journal-content .

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people
discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching
platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit
organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please
contact support@jstor.org.

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
Dr. Daniel, Coxb and Carolana

All students of the initial movements in the occupation of the
great central valley of America whether they approach their
field by the route of the lakes and the Mississippi system, or
across the hills and through the watergaps of the Appalachians
are almost certain sooner or later to make the acquaintance of
Dr. Daniel Coxe, proprietor and assiduous promoter from about
1698-1730 of the province of Carolana Florida.

The activities of Coxe have been recalled to our notice some-
what recently in connection with a new study of the proofs of
the priority on the part of English colonists in the exploration
of the country beyond the Alleghenies. 1 Last among the sub-
stantiating documents which follow this study is found one
previously unpublished which the editors attribute to Dr. Coxe
rather than to its formerly reputed author, Edward Billinge,
sometime proprietor and governor of the Jerseys. In as much
as the editors concur in the usual low estimation of Coxe's
credibility and in view of the title of their study which strictly
would exclude Coxe, the inclusion of his supposed memoir might
be deemed an inconsistency. 2 In consideration of the circum-
stances connected with the origin of the document, however, it
is believed that not only the publication but also the chance
honor given it of being the final evidence presented is not un-
warranted.

It is to be regretted that in the publication of the Coxe me-
morial the editors were dependent solely upon a British Museum
copy, or draft, of the original document not merely without sig-
nature but without date or reliable indorsement touching its
origin. Not only was its identification, therefore, left to infer-
ences from internal evidence, which it may be said were judi-

1 C. W. Alvord and L. Bidgood, First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region,
1650-1674 (Cleveland, 1912).

2 Alvord and Bidgood, Trans-Allegheny Region, 231-249. Coxe, of course, was not
a Virginian, and not an American explorer himself, nor was he active from 1650-1674.

258 Notes and Documents M - v - H - E -

cious although necessarily inadequate, but the museum manu-
script unfortunately was an imperfect one, due very evidently to
the careless transposition of its folios. Thus the published ver-
sion does not correctly present the paper as originally written.
Happily the finding of an authentic version among the papers of
the board of trade for 1719 provides the full identification of the
Coxe memorial, and also permits its correction as printed. 3

The discovery of the official version also confirms by its super-
scription the inferences of the editors as to the character of the
document. It runs : ' ' This memorial is Humbly Presented un-
to the Honourable Lords Commissoners [sic] for Trade and
Plantat 8 By the Proprietary of Carolana." 4 Likewise the sur-
mise is correct that it is a revision of the paper so diligently
pressed upon the board by Coxe in 1699. This time, however,
neither international expediency nor suspicion of stock jobbing
prevented a hearty indorsement of Carolana. 5

This significant change in the attitude of the lords of trade
toward Coxe's schemes can be readily appreciated by an exam-
ination of their journals for July and August, 1719. On July

a Board of Trade Journals, 29:65-79. This official version confirms the reader's
natural suspicion that the real beginning of the document is with the paragraph on
page 238 of Alvord and Bidgood's Trans-Allegheny Region, opening with the state-
ment: "In obedience to your Lordship's Commands I thought it expedient to add
unto the Memorial presented unto King Wm. wherewith he was so well satisfied that
he was pleased to order a Council which was very numerous, wherein it was Bead,
Debated, and Accepted unanimously with great Applause. ' ' Then the displaced
portion which discusses French claims and cites French writers (Alvord and Bidgood,
Trans- Allegheny Region, 231--238), it is found, should properly come at the head of
page 248, and following the paragraph which closes : ' ' The Journall will give an
Account where when and how they took possession for the King of England."

Also comparison of the two versions shows that the unintelligible opening sentence
of the paragraph coming at the middle of page 241 of the printed version is another
instance of transposition of folios. The first part of the sentence as printed, viz.,
"It descending unto his son, Sir Arthur, of whom the present Proprietors purchased
it," is, in the original, part of the preceding paragraph, while the second half of
the sentence, "from this Crayon it is obvious unto all Understanding Considering
persons unto what great troubles and dangers most of our Colonyes on the Continent
must be Exposed," is, in fact, the first sentence of a paragraph which follows the
other misplaced pages of French claims; or, in other words, it is properly the fifth
paragraph from the close of the document. Besides the transpositions, the two ver-
sions differ frequently in orthography and in some minor statements.

* Board of Trade Papers Proprieties, vol. 10, pt. 2, 1718-1720, q. 186.

5 Compare the action of December 21, 1699. Calendars of State Papers, Colonial,
America and West Indies, 1699, p. 579, 580, no. 1082.

vol. i, No. 2 j) r D an i e i Coxe and Carolana 259

21 of that year the board of trade received a letter from the lords
justices with a notice of the appointment of Colonel Martin
Bladen, a member of the board, as a commissioner to go to
France and negotiate under the treaty of Utrecht for a settle-
ment of colonial boundaries between the two countries. For
this negotiation the board was asked to draft the instructions
of their plenipotentiary. The board's first action upon this re-
quest is significant. They at once called upon Dr. Coxe to pre-
sent his Carolana claims. Then they summoned the colonial
agents present in London, representatives of the Hudson's Bay
Company, and others who had claims, or were said to have in-
formation which might be of value in restricting French juris-
diction in America, while to the same end they decided to write
circular letters to the colonial governors. 7

Coxe first attended on July 24, bringing with him the deeds to
his grant, two maps and a demonstration of the English rights
to Carolana alias Florida, and he promised to present further
evidence "on Tuesday seven night." 8 Meantime the board held a
session at which Coxe's grant was used, together with the char-
ters of existing colonies, as the basis of Bladen's instructions
touching the extent of English claims. 9 At Coxe's second ap-
pearance, on August 4, he brought his "memorial" which we
have been considering and five other papers, including in par-
ticular the journals of Captain Bond and of Mr. Metcalf giving
an account of the voyage they had made, on his account, in 1698
to the river Mississippi. 10

On August 9, the board took under consideration Coxe's "me-
morial," his earlier (1699) memoir "Intitul'd: A demonstra-
tion of the Bight of the King of England's just pretensions to
the province of Carolana Florida and of the present proprietary
under his Government; and also his Proposals." " After some
nine days Coxe was recalled to be questioned upon the proofs
that formerly fourteen Englishmen had gone from Carolina and
settled a fort two hundred miles higher up the Susagula than

e Board of Trade Journals, 29:2.

i Ibid., 2, 3, 6-8, 28, 31-37, etc.

s Ibid., 3-5.

9 Ibid., 6, 7 (July 29).

io Ibid., 8-12.

ii Ibid,, 41, 42, 65-79, 105-107.

260 Notes and Documents M - v - H - E -

any English had been. 12 Unluckily he had, as usual, lost his
papers regarding this, but it chanced that on the following day
a certain Mr. Byth, an independent witness, gave evidence large-
ly corroborative thereof. 13 As a result of these conferences the
board advocated the settlement of Carolana at once, although as
to the extent of England's western claims, they decided they
were not yet ready to give a categorical definition. 1 *

Unquestionably Coxe was a material witness, and had his evi-
dence been properly substantiated his testimony would have
been invaluable for the construction of the English case. His
title to Carolana was, indeed, found to be valid, and his recital
of the vicissitudes of that grant essentially correct; but upon
later points his evidence doubtless was impaired by the loss of
important proofs or the inability to produce material witnesses.
Perhaps others of his contemporaries besides Governor Nichol-
son of Virginia suspected that his numerous explorers' tales
were indications of a credulous temperament and a penchant
for exaggerated statements. 15

This judgment would be consonant, certainly, with our mod-
ern verdict, but admitting Coxe's obvious weaknesses, one can
not but wonder whether the verdicts, past and present, regard-
ing him represent so thorough an investigation as to be unim-
peachable. This query seems particularly pertinent, if the
memorial of 1719 may be considered a fair test of Coxe's truth-
fulness. More than one-third of that paper, for example, is de-
voted to a recital of the validity of the Carolana grant which
was substantiated by the crown attorneys and lords of trade
prejudiced against Coxe. Another third or more is concerned
with statements from French writers, 16 which investigation
shows to be faithful citations of his authorities ; and thus there

12 Board of Trade Journals, 29:93, 94.

13 Ibid., 107.

a Ibid., 107, 123-126, 133, et seq.

is For Nicholson's opinion of Coxe in 1700, see Calendars of State Papers, Co-
lonial, America and West Indies, 1700, p. 497. But for evidence that Nicholson was
perhaps quite as credulous, see ibid., 1697-1698, p. 392 ; 1700, p. 327.

is Indeed even upon the score of Coxe 's misdating the suppressed edition of the
Dernieres dScouvertes . . .deM.de la Salle, whose authorship Tonti denied, (Al-
vord and Bidgood, Trans-Allegheny Region, 231, 234, n.), it is the editors who are in
error, for Coxe does not say that the book appeared in 1679, but that in the book
Tonti states that in 1679 when he was among the Iroquois, etc.

Vol. i, No. 2 2>/\ Daniel Coxe and Carolana 261

remains perhaps a fourth part of the memorial for those ex-
plorers' tales which have chiefly discredited Coxe's reputation
for veracity. There are five such stories. One of these tales —
the account of the sending of his two ships to the Mississippi in
1698 — except as to details of his story, is well established his-
tory. Professor Alvord and Professor Bidgood have apparent-
ly established the facts of the explorations made by Needham,
Fallam, and Batt for Abram Wood. 17 Neglected statements by
French contemporaries, which space forbids our presenting
here, would seem to corroborate the long discredited story of the
use of the Susquehanna-Ohio route by Coxe and Penn. 18 There
is also abundant evidence in French and Carolinian sources of
the activities of English Indian traders in the Mississippi Val-
ley to which Coxe refers. Is it not possible then that an actual
basis may be found for the other two stories which Coxe relates
in this document of 1719? Yet whether or not further investi-
gation will lead us to revise our estimates of Coxe's credibility,
do not the circumstances attending the presentation of this 1719
memorial indicate the need of a fairer appraisal of Coxe's in-
fluence, and of his significance for the history of English colonial
expansion! Certainly the action of the board of trade in 1719
as well as the favor shown him by William III in 1700 illustrates,
even as does also the sensation created in France by the sending
of his Mississippi ships in 1698 and the sight of his maps a year
later at Paris, that Coxe was recognized by his contemporaries
as the leading exponent of the English transappalachian move-
ment. If there be any who would doubt that Coxe had seized the
psychological moment for the formation of national sentiment
to secure the Mississippi, let them but consider among other

" Alvord and Bidgood, Trans-Allegheny Region, introduction.

is Cf. the letter of Abbe Dubos to 11. Thoynard, Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS.
Francais, Nouvelles Acquisitions, 9294, f. 92-98. See also P. Margry, Decouvertes et
etablissements des Francais dans I'ouest et dans le sud de I'Amerique Septentrionale,
1614-1698 (Paris, 1879), 4:94, 294, 303, 334, 341-343, 347. There are also neglect-
ed colonial proofs of importance regarding such an expedition via the Susquehanna
in 1692, sent, it is said, under the leadership of Arnold Viele of Albany. (Minutes
of the New York Provincial Council, MSS. VI, as cited in another connection by 0.
A. Hanna in his Wilderness Trail [New York, 1911], 1:137-143.) Surely the pos-
sibilities of such material are not yet exhausted, and it is hoped that the edition of
William Penn papers now being prepared may contribute equally interesting in-
formation of this nature.

262 Notes and Documents M - v - H - E -

evidence the testimony of contemporary French official letters
as to Coxe's influence in determining the actual occupation by
France. 19

Frank E. Melvin

Salling's Journey in the Mississippi Valley

The late Dr. Lyman C. Draper, early in his career became
cognizant of the journey taken some hundred years before from
the forks of the James River to New Orleans by one Sailing (or
Salley), and made many attempts to secure accurate informa-
tion thereon. He wrote the following article during his latter
years, when engaged on a revision of Alexander Wither 's Chron-
icles of Border Warfare, a task completed by the late Dr. R. G.
Thwaites. Although the journal for which Dr. Draper had
searched so many years was discovered by Dr. William M.
Darlington of Pittsburgh, and printed in the appendix to his
Christopher Gist's Journals (Pittsburgh, 1893), pages 253-260,
nevertheless Dr. Draper's account thereof is worthy of publica-
tion, embodying, as it does, considerable additional information
and revealing the historical methods of so notable a collector.

Louise Phelps Kellogg

john peter sallings's adventures
[Draper MSS., 21U1-8.]

Sailing is the proper orthography of the name, though generally pro-
nounced Sallee, and sometimes so written.

John Peter Sailing — sometimes spoken of as Peter Adam Sailing —
was a native of Germany, or, at least, of German descent, and, with his
brother Henry, early settled in the forks of James river and the North
Branch, in the southern portion of what is now Rockbridge County, Vir-
ginia. His place of residence is noted on Pry and Jefferson's map of
Virginia, of 1751. The details of his early western explorations are
involved in doubt; but the fact that he made such adventures is un-
doubted.

Hugh Paul Taylor, in his sketch, 20 fixed on the period of about 1724

is Of. n. 18. Especially the letter of Pontchartrain to I) 'Iberville ct ah in Mar-
gry, Decmivertes et etablissements, 4.

20 Hugh Paul Taylor was a local Virginia historian related to the Stuarts of
Greenbriar. In the decade 1820-1830 he contributed a number of "Sketches" of
early western Virginia settlement to the Fincastle (Virginia) Mirror, under the pseu-
donym "Son of Cornstalk." In the first of these he mentions Sailing's voyage, and